Gabe Grant From Houston to UB

[BrooklynBull]

Per Jon Rothstein.

https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/1014932927216607232

http://www.uhcougars.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/gabe_grant_1049494.html

He has one year left. If he graduated it is this year.  If not 2019-2020.

http://www.ubbulls.com/sports/mbkb/2018-19/releases/20180705mj3f8n

[UB85]

http://www.ubbulls.com/sports/mbkb/2018-19/releases/20180705mj3f8n

Both transfers will sit out next year.

[rma]

Crazy hypothesis.

Next year is the breakout year (not crazy).  Sweet 16 or whatnot, Oats gets hired away.  CJ, Harris, Perk are all gone from graduation.  Our situation looks bad.

Enter: Grant and Johnson.  Both have a year left of eligibility, practiced with the team for a year.  No point in them transferring for a year after they sat (not sure if they would still have eligibility left).  Gives us a year of momentum so that we don't have to have 5 freshmen (or JUCO newcomers) needing to pick up huge minutes.

Is this Oats stocking the kitchen before leaving?

[trueblue32]

Crazy hypothesis.

Next year is the breakout year (not crazy).  Sweet 16 or whatnot, Oats gets hired away.  CJ, Harris, Perk are all gone from graduation.  Our situation looks bad.

Enter: Grant and Johnson.  Both have a year left of eligibility, practiced with the team for a year.  No point in them transferring for a year after they sat (not sure if they would still have eligibility left).  Gives us a year of momentum so that we don't have to have 5 freshmen (or JUCO newcomers) needing to pick up huge minutes.

Is this Oats stocking the kitchen before leaving?

If anything it leads me to believe the opposite, on all accounts Nate Oats is a good guy, and it would be a pretty shaqty thing to do to convince these kids to sit out a year to only play one year here and then leave.  It would leave those kids stranded here.  Granted Hodgson seems to do most of the recruiting so if they were more so sold on him and Hodgson stepped into Oats place if he were to leave, then maybe this theory is plausible.

[Kevin]

Super excited for Johnson. MTSU was upset to lose him for a year.

Underrated factor, but need a scholarship this year to be transfers, meaning the current active roster will only have 11 players.

Not excited for Grant. He's had a nothing career and couldn't even sniff the Houston roster, not quite the expectation we are setting here. I'd see a role player in the mold of a Montell McRae.

[trueblue32]

Being a JUCO all American is a nothing career? Condemning him to being a role player due to the mins he received on the #18 (kenpom) team in the country is a lazy take. Houston was stacked at guard. Tre'shaun Fletcher only played ~40% of mins at colorado, discount his mins for playing on a worse team, with less positional depth and more experience in the system (3 years vs. 1) and I'd imagine their mins would be similar. I'm not saying I expect him to be Fletcher but there's a lot of room between MAC POY and a role player. Let's trust our coaches have been recruiting well rather than jumping to conclusions.

[mikescherrer8]

Being a JUCO all American is a nothing career? Condemning him to being a role player due to the mins he received on the #18 (kenpom) team in the country is a lazy take. Houston was stacked at guard. Tre'shaun Fletcher only played ~40% of mins at colorado, discount his mins for playing on a worse team, with less positional depth and more experience in the system (3 years vs. 1) and I'd imagine their mins would be similar. I'm not saying I expect him to be Fletcher but there's a lot of room between MAC POY and a role player. Let's trust our coaches have been recruiting well rather than jumping to conclusions.

You couldn't have said it any better.

[Kevin]

Being a JUCO all American is a nothing career? Condemning him to being a role player due to the mins he received on the #18 (kenpom) team in the country is a lazy take. Houston was stacked at guard. Tre'shaun Fletcher only played ~40% of mins at colorado, discount his mins for playing on a worse team, with less positional depth and more experience in the system (3 years vs. 1) and I'd imagine their mins would be similar. I'm not saying I expect him to be Fletcher but there's a lot of room between MAC POY and a role player. Let's trust our coaches have been recruiting well rather than jumping to conclusions.

You think Gabe Grant could be Fletcher? I mean we could compare any potential UB player to the MAC POY. Fletcher was WAY more productive in D1 than Grant. He carried the same numbers as a Freshman as Grant did as a Junior.

I watched some film on Grant. He didn't grasp the system in Houston (reached out to a recruiter).

You are allowed to admit when everyone on the team won't be a MAC POY candidate. This guy is a bench minutes player. These aren't the Reggie days, we are looking for the best mid-major players in the country now, not just "potential" guys.  He's a role player. I heard the same things about Montell McRae last year too, and that's what he turned in to.

If anything, It's NOT a lazy take. Comparing him to Fletcher is the lazy take. Did you watch him play at all?

[DooleyBull06]

The additions of Johnson and Grant are smart moves by Oats and the staff. First off it eases the burden of having to recruit 5 prospects. We are a program very much on the rise but I think we can all agree getting 5 recruits in one off season would be hard. But 3 recruits is more doable. That said I don’t think it’s fair to expect either of these guys to become Fletcher. That man is a beast. I think we would be happy if they come in provide senior leadership and contribute. The future of this team is Segu and Williams. Add Grant and Johnson as solid role players and continue to recruit 3 star and higher prospects (hopefully a few athletic bigs)  then we can maintain elite mid major status.

[guru]

Good insight DooleyBull06!! Coach Oats and staff really seem to be on the right track. They are looking not only at the present but the future years as what the team will look like. Have not heard much about their continuing search for a big player to augment Perkins, McCrea and Bertram. A lot is going to depend if Bertram will show any kind of improvement and be any kind of presence in the middle. It is going to be interesting to see how Segu and Williams can fit into the lineup with the present players. The continued improvement of Jordan and Carruthers will be important. It should be another exciting upcoming year. Go Bulls!!!

[Kevin]

The additions of Johnson and Grant are smart moves by Oats and the staff. First off it eases the burden of having to recruit 5 prospects. We are a program very much on the rise but I think we can all agree getting 5 recruits in one off season would be hard. But 3 recruits is more doable. That said I don’t think it’s fair to expect either of these guys to become Fletcher. That man is a beast. I think we would be happy if they come in provide senior leadership and contribute. The future of this team is Segu and Williams. Add Grant and Johnson as solid role players and continue to recruit 3 star and higher prospects (hopefully a few athletic bigs)  then we can maintain elite mid major status.

Well said.

I do see Johnson as an immediate impact though, He'll be able to play with Segu/Williams/Jordan. It will be a fun year next year too.

[trueblue32]

You think Gabe Grant could be Fletcher?

I explicitly said "I'm not saying I expect him to be Fletcher".  My whole point was that your assumptions about mins alone could be applied to any of a handful of impact transfers from high major schools.  They don't transfer to the MAC because they're superstars at their current school.  I'm just saying his lack of mins really makes him an unknown, and I don't know what you're basing your 9th man Montell Mcrae assumptions on.  They're different sizes, play different positions, have different skillsets and Grant performed (significantly) better and was more highly touted coming out of JUCO.

I don't see him just being a role player for two reasons: we don't really have anyone else at the wing for next year aside from Jeenathan, and I don't believe Nate Oats would lock up a roster spot for this season (potentially the greatest in school history, with a huge payday waiting on the other side for him) for a replacement level 8th or 9th guy on the team.  So either you disagree with the second point or you think you have a better scouting report on Grant from 5 mins on YouTube than Oats or Hodgson does.

[Kevin]

You think Gabe Grant could be Fletcher?

I explicitly said "I'm not saying I expect him to be Fletcher".  My whole point was that your assumptions about mins alone could be applied to any of a handful of impact transfers from high major schools.  They don't transfer to the MAC because they're superstars at their current school.  I'm just saying his lack of mins really makes him an unknown, and I don't know what you're basing your 9th man Montell Mcrae assumptions on.  They're different sizes, play different positions, have different skillsets and Grant performed (significantly) better and was more highly touted coming out of JUCO.

I don't see him just being a role player for two reasons: we don't really have anyone else at the wing for next year aside from Jeenathan, and I don't believe Nate Oats would lock up a roster spot for this season (potentially the greatest in school history, with a huge payday waiting on the other side for him) for a replacement level 8th or 9th guy on the team.  So either you disagree with the second point or you think you have a better scouting report on Grant from 5 mins on YouTube than Oats or Hodgson does.

I mean if you don't see him as Fletcher, why are you even bringing that up? Are you just picking a transfer to the MAC who worked out?  I mean he isn't Fletcher, so even bringing that up was lazy.

Cool dig on the Youtube, but once again, have you watched him play the sport? What are you basing him being more than a "role player" on? The fact Oats gave him a scholarship as a grad transfer?

I never said McRae and Grant were the same player, I'm saying many said the same things about him last year (we don't have a center, he'll be able to roll the MAC with his size, ect.).

We don't have a wing on the team except our young starting wing? Williams will be your 30mpg wing, leaving Grant with, you guessed it! ~10mpg.
Making him a what? role player. Not sure why that's hard for you to grasp. Why wouldn't Hodgson/Oats be looking for a backup to Williams with their 10th scholarship? If Oats is on his way out, for "a big payday" why wouldn't he just recruit someone who could fill in like Grant?  If you follow the team recruiting, you'd know they lost out on 3-4 decent to high level forwards, and it left them scrambling with two extra scholarships, plus 5 more next year. They figured he'd be a good replacement level player for a year who if he puts it together might be a solid bench player.